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Looks
Minato was a fairly tall, fair-skinned man who on more than one occasion has been compared with Naruto in terms of physical appearance; both have bright blue-eyes and spiky blond hair. Unlike Naruto, Minato had jaw-length bangs framing either side of his face. According to Jiraiya, Minato was considered to be very handsome, as many women were infatuated with him.[citation needed] His normal attire consisted of a standard Konoha-nin uniform with two bands each on both of his sleeves, a flak jacket and a forehead protector and sandals. After becoming Hokage, he started wearing a short-sleeved long white coat over his normal attire, decorated by flames-like motifs on the edges, with the kanji for "Fourth Hokage" (四代目火影, Yondaime Hokage) written vertically down the back, and closed on the front by a thin orange rope. In his youth, he wore a tracksuit with three stripes on the sleeves, mesh under-shirt and dark pants.

Personality
Jiraiya and Tsunade pointed out that, while Naruto physically bears great resemblance to Minato, his personality is almost identical to his mother.[27] While Naruto is boisterous and relatively thick, Minato was calm, collected, and highly perceptive. He also seemed well aware of the terror his reputation inspired in his foes. He appeared to be respectful of those around him; he didn't like freely speaking about others' pasts, and was said to be a very nice person. He deeply cared for and loved his wife and child, becoming very nervous because of Kushina's pain during labour and even shedding tears of joy at his son's birth. He also enjoyed reading, and took a special liking to reading Jiraiya's work in particular.
Jiraiya said that Minato was a shrewd person, and was not a man who would do something without reason.[28] He was very knowledgeable of the ninja world, concluding that only Madara Uchiha would have the power or the reason to have the Nine-Tails attack Konoha during his battle with the masked man.[29] Minato was known for his unbeatable determination and unbelievable drive, which he passed on to his son. In his youth, Minato also had a desire to be acknowledged by everyone in the village and to become a great Hokage, again, a trait passed onto his son. His devotion to the village and his love for his friends inspired all those around him, and, as a result, he became well-liked by the villagers. Minato was nevertheless understanding that Naruto must feel hurt by the fact that his own father had sealed a monster inside him.

Village InfoVillage of Birth: KonohagakureVillage of Alliance: Konohagakure

When Minato was in the Academy, his class-mate and future wife Kushina Uzumaki thought that he looked "flaky" and even "girly". He dreamed of being acknowledged by the Konoha villagers by becoming the Hokage, which Kushina considered to be an impossible dream for someone like him. Years later, however, when Kushina was kidnapped by Kumogakure ninja, Minato was the only one to pick up on the fact that she was leaving behind strands of her red hair to mark their path. After rescuing her, Minato explained that he had always admired her hair. No longer seeing him as "flaky", she fell in love with him.

According to those who knew him personally, Minato was a very talented ninja prodigy — a rare genius that appeared only once in a generation. He graduated from the Academy at the age of ten, and was added to a genin team under the tutelage of Jiraiya, who took a special interest in Minato, and took him on as an apprentice, amongst other things teaching him the Summoning Technique. He even believed Minato might be the Child of the Prophecy, someone who would someday save the world.

In time, Minato was put in charge of a genin team of his own, consisting of Rin Nohara, Obito Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake. During the Third Shinobi World War, Minato led his team on a mission into Kusagakure to destroy the Kannabi Bridge. Because Kakashi had recently become a jōnin, Minato gave leadership of the mission to Kakashi while he went to help Konoha's forces on the front lines. After meeting up with the surviving and out-numbered Konoha ninja, Minato used his Flying Thunder God Technique to kill the opposing Iwagakure ninja. He then returned to his team, just in time to save Kakashi and Rin from another group of Iwa forces, but was too late to save Obito. When Kakashi and Rin recovered from the ordeal, Minato helped them complete the mission.

Before becoming Hokage, Minato clashed with A on several occasions. On what was seemingly their first meeting, Minato, an Inuzuka, Akimichi, and a fourth member, confronted A and his team. There, Minato and A had a clash of speed with Minato almost severely injuring the future Raikage before B intercepted the attack. Upon receiving the signal that Konoha was retreating for the time being, Minato lingered to praise B's bravery and told A that he had a good family and followers surrounding him as he did, and also offered A the advice of making sure his brother knew who he was before he became neither human nor jinchūriki. Minato then declared that the next time they met, it would be to put the title of "Kage" on the line. Not one to allow his enemy to escape so easily, A attempted to attack Minato before he left. Believing that Minato would teleport to one of his special kunai, A was shocked to see the Konoha-nin appear behind his brother before realising that Minato had marked him earlier. Impressed by the fact that B had reacted fast enough to pull one of his swords on him, Minato praised B for his skills.

Minato, not yet thirty years of age, was chosen to become the Fourth Hokage. However, his reign as the Hokage was rather short, as Tsunade noted he "died too early". At some point during his reign, Minato taught his signature technique to the Hokage Guard Platoon to better aid them in their duties of serving the Hokage at any given time. While Kushina was pregnant, he read Jiraiya's first book and liked the main character's determination — whom he believed to be just like Jiraiya — decided to name their son "Naruto" in the hopes that he would be just like the main character and, in turn, Jiraiya. Jiraiya warned them that it would make him Naruto's godfather, but they insisted that this was a good thing.

Because Kushina was the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, special arrangements had to be made for Naruto's birth. Since the seal keeping the Nine-Tails within her would weaken during childbirth, Naruto would be secretly delivered in a remote location outside Konoha. ANBU would guard the area and Minato would maintain the seal while Kushina went into labour. Soon after Naruto was born they were found by Tobi who had killed the ANBU stationed outside and infiltrated the cave. Tobi killed Biwako Sarutobi and Taji then took Naruto hostage, threatening to do the same to him. Minato was able to take Naruto back, but this gave Tobi the chance to escape with Kushina. Minato found a safe place to put Naruto and then teleported to Kushina. He arrived in time to stop the Nine-Tails — having been removed from her body — from killing her, and teleported back to Naruto. Minato reunited mother and son and then went to help defend Konoha from the Nine-Tails.

Minato arrived in the early stages of the Nine-Tails' attack. After protecting the village from its Tailed Beast Ball, Minato tried to reach the Third Hokage to inform him of what had happened, but was stopped by Tobi, who tried to send him away. Minato escaped but was followed by Tobi. When the two began fighting, Minato struggled to hit Tobi, Tobi being intangible whenever he was not currently attacking. By carefully timing his Flying Thunder God Technique, Minato was able to strike him during one of these rare moments and apply a seal for the Flying Thunder God Technique to him, allowing him to teleport directly to Tobi. He placed a Contract Seal on Tobi to remove the Nine-Tails from his control, forcing the latter to retreat.

When Minato returned to the village he found it in ruin. He summoned Gamabunta to distract the Nine-Tails long enough to teleport it away from the village to Naruto and Kushina's location. Kushina then restrained it with her chakra chains and erected a barrier so that the beast could not escape. Despite knowing that the trauma of resealing the Nine-Tails in her weakened body would kill her, she volunteered to do it so the Nine-Tails would die with her. Minato however disagreed, and instead decided that he would use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal on the Nine-Tails to weaken it and then seal the rest into Naruto. Kushina objected since this would mean Minato's death and leave Naruto orphaned. Minato insisted it was for the best since allowing the Nine-Tails to resurrect itself, without a jinchūriki to contain it, would inevitably cause harm to Konoha and the Fire Country. Also, Minato was convinced that Naruto was the "Child of the Prophecy" Jiraiya had once told him about and would need the Nine-Tails' power to someday defeat Tobi. After Minato used the Dead Demon Consuming Seal to seal away the beast's Yin chakra, the Nine-Tails realised their intentions and tried to kill Naruto, but Minato and Kushina used their bodies to shield him.

While Kushina gave her final words to Naruto, Minato summoned Gerotora, gave him the key to the seal he would use on Naruto, and sent him to Jiraiya. After Kushina told Naruto how much his parents loved him he seconds everything she says and then sealed the Nine-Tails and the rest of their chakra into Naruto so that they would be able to see him again when he was older, ending their lives. Since the Third Hokage had come to help, Minato used his last moments to request that Konoha think of Naruto as a hero, and not the container of the monster that caused so much death and destruction. Before he died, he sealed the rest of their remaining chakra into Naruto so that they could someday see him again too, specifically if ever the seal was about to break so that they could restore it, or help him control Nine-Tails' power.

It was not until the Invasion of Pain that he made an actual appearance in the story. When Naruto started to give into the temptation of power from the Nine-Tails and was about to release the beast, the imprint of Minato stopped him. Minato voiced his dislike of seeing the Nine-Tails again, but pointed out that its actions had allowed him to see his son once more. Naruto eventually picked up on what Minato was saying, and was overjoyed to finally find out who his father was. Minato tried to talk with Naruto, but the Nine-Tails kept interrupting the conversation, trying to tempt Naruto into destroying the seal. So Minato transported them to another space that was quieter. Naruto was outraged at the idea that Minato would seal the Nine-Tails into his own son, which Minato apologised for. Naruto punched him in anger but quickly got over it, claiming that as the Fourth's son, he could handle it.

Because he had a limited amount of time to talk to Naruto, Minato briefly caught up with him, at the same time indicating that he knew that Pain had killed Jiraiya and was aware of Konoha's destruction as he saw it through Naruto. He expressed his suspicions that Pain was actually being manipulated by someone else due to his childhood psychological traumas, and that it was "the masked man of the Akatsuki" who really wished Konoha's destruction. He went onto suggest that, as long as the current ninja system exists, people like Pain, who were ruined by war, will continue to exist. He restored the seal on Naruto's stomach and voiced his confidence in him that he would find a way to stop the vicious cycle of death and destruction before disappearing to the afterlife.

Other

Ninjutsu

Minato spent three years creating the Rasengan by observing the Tailed Beast Ball. It is the highest level of shape transformation and it does not require hand signs to be performed. Instead, using a concentration of spinning chakra in the form of a sphere in the user's palm, immense damage is inflicted to its target upon contact. As its creator, Minato had great mastery over the Rasengan, able to form it with one hand and his standard version — at one point — being larger than the Rasengan used by other characters (roughly the size of the Big Ball Rasengan). The lack of elaborate preparations needed for the Rasengan gave Minato an advantage over other technique users in battle. For example, in his fight with Tobi, he is able to form a Rasengan right after throwing his marked kunai at him, allowing Minato to land a devastating blow immediately after performing the Flying Thunder God Technique.
He had intended to combine the Rasengan with his own nature transformation, but the task was too difficult to complete before his untimely death.

Taijutsu

One of Minato's trademark attributes was his immense speed and instantaneous reflexes, able to react fast enough to catch an infant Naruto mid-fall to prevent him from being stabbed by Tobi. This attribute earned him the moniker of "Konoha's Yellow Flash". He could also respond to Tobi's Kamui technique quickly enough to escape it. He is often referred to throughout the series as the fastest shinobi who ever lived, with the speed of the currently fastest living shinobi often being compared to his own, such as A or Naruto in his Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, with the former admitting that even with his Lightning Release Armour enhancing his already immense speed and reflexes was still outmatched by Minato. Even when assisted by his brother, A was unable to lay a hand on Minato. When fighting, he mainly employed the use of his unique kunai, wielding them proficiently and taking advantage of their particular form, which made them even more suitable for close range combat than standard kunai. Using this type of kunai, he was able to nearly sever one of the Eight-Tails' tentacles when B moved to save his brother from Minato's counter-attack despite having nearly no leverage, showing that he possessed a great deal of strength.

Space Time Ninjutsu

Minato was famous for his unique space–time technique, the Flying Thunder God Technique, which essentially allowed him to teleport to any location with untraceable movements Minato had through the use of special seals. By throwing kunai that had the seal attached to them behind enemy lines, Minato could wipe out an entire platoon in the blink of an eye. Minato could teleport to his special kunai even as it travelled through the air. He was also capable of applying the seal to solid surfaces with his bare hand, allowing him to tag opponents and give himself an easy way to track and reach them. He also incorporated this seal formula into Kushina's seal so he could always come to her aid, at any time.
For defensive use, Minato was capable of implementing space–time barriers to counter large attacks such as a Tailed Beast Ball, sending the blast to a distant area away from the village. He was even able to teleport things as large as the Nine-Tails itself, albeit at the cost of a large portion of his chakra due to the beast's immense size.

Intelligence

Minato was shown to be very intuitive and clever from a young age. Of the many ninja sent out to save Kushina from her Kumogakure kidnappers, Minato was the only one to notice the trail of hair she was leaving. After seeing a technique once, he could correctly deduce the basic mechanics behind it, such as the strengths and weaknesses of Kakashi's Chidori. During difficult events, he was still capable of maintaining his composure, assessing the situation, and devising appropriate plans of action. During his skirmish against Tobi, he was able to determine that his opponent didn't want to drag on their fight as he could not keep Kurama summoned for very long, as well as quickly ascertain a method of counter-attacking. Using this information, he was able to take advantage of Tobi's haste to not only wound him, but also remove his control over the beast as well.